Image de couverture de Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems
Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems
Titre:
Cold-Water Corals and Ecosystems
ISBN (Numéro international normalisé des livres):
9783540276739
Edition:
1st ed. 2005.
PRODUCTION_INFO:
Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg : Imprint: Springer, 2005.
Description physique:
XXXII, 1243 p. 361 illus., 116 illus. in color. online resource.
Collections:
Erlangen Earth Conference Series
Table des matières:
The paleoenvironmental context -- Distribution -- Mapping -- Exogenic and endogenic controls -- Coral Biology -- Diversity -- Environmental archive -- Conservation.
Extrait:
Following the exciting exploration of hot vent and cold seep ecosystems, the rediscovery of cold-water coral ecosystems with high-technology instrumentation is currently another hot topic in multidisciplinary marine research. Conventionally, coral reefs are regarded as restricted to warm and well-illuminated tropical seas, not associated with cold and dark waters of higher latitudes. However, ongoing scientific missions have shed light on the global significance of this overlooked ecosystem. Cold-water coral ecosystems are involved in the formation of large seabed structures such as reefs and giant carbonate mounds, and they represent unexploited paleo-environmental archives of earth history. Like their tropical cousins, cold-water coral ecosystems harbour rich species diversity. Despite the great water depths, commercial interests overlap more and more with the coral occurrences. Human activities already impinge directly on cold-water coral reefs causing severe damage to this vulnerable ecosystem. In this volume, the current key institutions involved in cold-water coral research have contributed 62 state-of-the-art articles from geology and oceanography to biology and conservation.
Auteur collectif ajouté:
Langue:
Anglais